Radio station group sues Ozark woman in property dispute

Springfield attorney Rodney Nichols said the broadcast group’s parent company, MW SpringMo Inc., has owned the 50-acre site near Clever since June 1992, but Amy Kern contends she purchased the property at a public auction in August 2001.

In a Jan. 31 letter to Midwest Family Broadcast Group, Springfield attorney Bob Sweere asserted that Kern was the rightful owner of the property and enclosed a copy of the collector’s deed as proof.

“My client is willing to allow your tower to remain on her property provided that an appropriate lease and rental is agreed upon,” wrote Sweere, a lawyer with Moon, Plaster & Sweere LLP in Springfield.

Midwest Family Broadcast Group operates four FM radio stations in southwest Missouri: KOSP Oldies 105.1, KOMG 92.9 Bass Country, KKLH 104.7 The Cave and KQRA Q102. Nichols said the transmission tower on the property in question is necessary for his client’s daily broadcasts.

The suit also names Christian County Collector Ted Nichols as a defendant. Carnahan, Evans, Cantwell & Brown attorney Rodney Nichols (no relation) said the collector previously issued two separate tax statements for the tract after the county assessor incorrectly assessed his client’s property as two adjacent parcels.

“Our position is that the sale was done improperly … and that (Kern) has no interest whatsoever in the property,” Nichols said. “We didn’t feel like paying rent on property we own.”

Nichols said Kern offered to lease the property – just south of Missouri Highway 14 – to his clients for $1,000 a month, but Sweere couldn’t remember the proposed terms of the lease.

“It didn’t make any difference what the numbers were because they told us they’re not willing to pay anything,” Sweere said.

The suit is headed to a July 18 trial before Christian County Circuit Judge Mark Orr unless the parties reach a settlement, but that doesn’t appear likely. Still, Sweere said the door remains open to negotiate a lease.

“Maybe they’ll come to their senses and make some decent settlement offer,” he said. “If they’re wanting to pay us a fair rent to keep their tower there, we’ll be glad to accept.”

Sold at auction

Rodney Nichols said Midwest Family Broadcast Group believes it has paid every tax statement received from the county, yet the property was sold at public auction in August 2001 for an alleged failure to pay property taxes in 1999 and 2000.

Kern was the highest bidder at the auction, offering to buy the 50-acre plot for $83.68, or roughly $1.67 an acre.

Nichols said his client never received tax delinquency notices from the county or notification of the auction sale, but Sweere said a legal notice in advance of the sale was published locally as required by law.

Deed filed

Unbeknownst to MW SpringMo, Kern obtained a collector’s deed for the property on Dec. 26, 2003 – more than two years after the sale – and recorded the deed four days later, according to the suit.

Kern waited another three years before contacting MW SpringMo about leasing her property to the company for its radio tower. Citing a special three-year statute of limitations allowing his client to recover the property through litigation, Nichols said he doesn’t think the timing was coincidental.

“She was trying to close the door on us to keep us from having any legal remedy,” he said.

The statute does, however, allow for exceptions if property taxes were paid or if the collector’s deed is void on its face, Rodney Nichols said.